California Horse Racing Board

The head of California's trainer association labeled "ridiculous" a Jockeys' Guild petition seeking payment on a rider's behalf from a trainer whose winning horse was later disqualified because of a positive drug test.

The Jockeys' Guild has filed a petition with the California Horse Racing Board asking that a jockey be paid his share of the purse from a Bay Meadows race in which his mount was later disqualified for a drug positive.

Stewards at Golden Gate Fields fined trainer Art Sherman $3,000 for a Class III violation of California rules after a horse in his care, Fargoabargain, tested in excess of the permitted level for clenbuterol.

The California Horse Racing Board, under fire for its drug enforcement policies, would dramatically change penalties for many violations and repeat offenses under recommendations passed on to the full commission by its medication committee Jan. 9.

Five of the six horses previously identified with equine herpesvirus type 1 at Golden Gate Fields tested negative in samples taken Jan. 5, the director of the large animal clinic at the University of California-Davis reported.

Five more horses from trainer Lloyd Mason's barn at Golden Gate Fields have tested positive for a neurogenic strain of equine herpesvirus after final samples were tested on New Year's Day, although none are showing symptoms of the illness, officials said Jan. 3.

The executive director of the California Horse Racing Board removed herself from a decision-making role after Santa Anita Park stewards initiated an investigation of the claim of a horse trained by Bruce Headley by his son, Gus Headley, on Dec. 28.

Bay Meadows Race Course, long rumored to be facing demolition in favor of redevelopment plans approved by the city of San Mateo, may seek an exemption from a California Horse Racing Board mandate to replace its existing dirt track with an artificial one by the end of 2007.

All horses trained by Mike Mitchell will run out of the detention barn for a period of 45 days that begins with those entered for Dec. 17, Hollywood Park announced, after a horse under his care exceeded the permitted total carbon dioxide level.

The number of race horses that failed drug tests in California has nearly doubled since 2000, and the offenses rarely result in disqualification or other stiff penalties, the Orange County Register reported in its Dec. 10 edition.

California customers of rival account deposit wagering companies TVG and XpressBet would be able to play any track in the state with their preferred carrier under an agreement being negotiated on a one-year experimental basis.

Richard "Bon" Smith, a certified financial manager who served as chief of audits with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, has been named assistant executive director of the California Horse Racing Board.

The California Horse Racing Board has filed an accusation against trainer Gregory Vartanian for several rule violations after a horse in his care tested positive for the Class 1 prohibited substance methamphetamine in the post-race urine sample.

The simmering dispute between the organization representing California's horse owners and the racing television and wagering network TVG appeared unlikely to be resolved heading into the Oct. 26 meeting of the California Horse Racing Board.

Reducing the number of racing events without the loss of a significant number of actual racing days in the North was the goal of the California Horse Racing Board's Strategic Alliance Planning Committee, which met for the final time Oct. 12 before making a final 2007 dates recommendation to the full board.

The California Horse Racing Board has established a new policy of releasing a weekly update of complaints, accusations, stewards rulings, and board decisions involving Class 1, 2, and 3 medication violations and other significant matters.

The California Horse Racing Board has filed a complaint against trainer Jeff Mullins for multiple rule violations after a horse in his care, Robs Coin, tested positive for mepivacaine in the post-race urine sample.

California Horse Racing Board investigators are looking into allegations that a jockey at the recently concluded Fairplex Park meeting was carrying an illegal electrical device, known as a "battery" or a "buzzer", during the running of the second race on Saturday, Sept. 24.

Dr. Rick Arthur, the new equine medical director of the California Horse Racing Board, told a meeting of state horse breeders Sept. 22 that he plans to hold veterinarians accountable when trainers they advise are found in violation of horse medication rules.

A longstanding dispute between California horsemen and the account deposit wagering provider TVG over what the television network may charge for its service remained unresolved Sept. 20 after the state horse racing board heard more than two hours of discussion during a marathon commission meeting at Fairplex Park in Pomona.

Under a no-cost-to-the-owner, voluntary program approved by the California Horse Racing Board utilizing federal grants, microchips have been implanted in almost 500 Thoroughbreds at Southern California racetracks over the last two months for health, security, and inventory purposes, and there is sufficient funding for another 3,500 horses, or roughly a third of the Thoroughbreds that race in Southern California during any 12-month period.

Embattled jockey Patrick Valenzuela, who hasn't ridden since the conclusion of the spring/summer meet at Hollywood Park July 16, was given clearance to resume exercising horses Sept. 7 after meeting with Del Mar stewards the morning of Sept. 6.

Reducing the dates calendar while increasing the overall quality of racing and the possible closure of two major racing facilities remained the focus of the California Horse Racing Board's "Strategic Alliance Planning Committee," which met for the second time at Del Mar on Aug. 28.

Account wagering in California remains mired in a dispute between horsemen and TVG over setting hub fees, officials from both sides told the California Horse Racing Board on Aug. 17, with no guarantee the stalemate will be resolved soon.

TVG will make their isolated camera feeds and race replays available to Del Mar track stewards each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through the end of the season, Tony Allevato, network executive producer announced Aug. 4.

The California Horse Racing Board has dismissed a pair of six-year-old complaints against trainer Bobby Frankel concerning morphine positives in post-race urine samples taken from his trainees Starmaniac and Mojave Moon in 2000.

Disgruntled horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian, whose colt Past Tender was disqualified from victory in a July 28 race at Del Mar, has filed a conflict of interest complaint against one of the stewards involved and also protested the decision to the California Horse Racing Board.

Trainer Jeff Mullins said he was informed by the California Horse Racing Board that one of the horses in his care, Robs Coin, tested positive for a prohibited amount of the anesthetic mepivacaine, and that he is awaiting the results of split-sample tests.

The California Horse Racing Board turned its attention to jockey protection at its meeting July 20 at Del Mar, moving along one rule change that would make safety reins mandatory and a second that revises criteria for vest standards.

California stewards issued a unanimous decision July 5 that Intercontinental, official winner of the Palomar Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. IIT) at Del Mar last September, "did not gain an unfair advantage when it raced with a late treatment of pre-race bleeder medication."